BRIGHID: Both Goddess & Saint
By Veronica Smith
Who is Brighid?
Many people know her as Saint Brighid, the 5th century Irish Christian monastic who, along with Saint Patrick, is the Patron Saint of Ireland.
Saint Brighid was renowned for healing the sick, feeding the poor and championing the marginalised.
Many ancient healing wells are named after Saint Brighid.
However, she is most famous for keeping lit a perpetual Flame of Hope. Saint Brighid and 19 of her nuns took turns to tend the Flame from sunset to sunset over a period of 20 days, so that the Flame would never go out. Today, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of followers of Blessed Brighid, all over the world, who tend their Flames of Hope from sunset to sunset every 20 days. It is keeping a beautiful tradition alive! Check out this website: https://solasbhride.ie for more details.
BRIGHID AS PRE-CHRISTIAN GODDESS
Brighid was revered long before Christianity. The Iron Age Celts were famous for their metal work and their Goddess Brighid was Patroness of the Forge and the Fire that fed it. However, unlike the Greek and Roman Goddesses, Brighid’s history is hard to trace. The Druid priests of the Celts forbade the writing down of their religious beliefs and practises. Initiates had to memorize all Sacred Knowledge and use only the spoken word to transmit it, usually as poetry. We get tantalising glimpses through the oral folk traditions of Ireland, Scotland and Wales – but how reliable is the collective memory after two thousand years of Christianity?
There is always archaeology, of course. We also have eye-witness accounts from contemporary Greek and Roman travellers, who were outsiders observing a foreign culture. Naturally, Julius Caesar’s account (in his “Conquest of Gaul”) is written from a Roman conqueror’s point of view, so we only get a “compare and contrast with Rome” report. Centuries later, medieval monks in Ireland and Wales recorded their local histories and traditions, before this folk memory was lost forever. Nevertheless, these medieval stories were written from a Christian view-point. As artist, historian and writer, Yuri Leitch points out, the monks converted the ancient pagan Gods and Goddesses into human figures from a mythical past, so that they would be more acceptable to the Church authorities. So their beloved pagan Goddess Brighid became the sanitized Saint Brighid, who performed miracles in the name of Jesus Christ!
Thankfully there are some other sources to investigate, such as language and local place-names. In proto-Celtic languages, the words “Bri”, “Brig”, “Briganti” translate as “The High One” or “The Exalted One”. So we have:-
BRIGINDO in ancient Gaul (France)
BRIGANT-N in Iberia (Spain and Portugal)
BRIGANTIA in ancient Brittania (Britain)
BRIGHID / BRIGIT / BRID ( Brid is pronounced Breege) in ancient Hibernia (Ireland)
BRIDE in Scotland
FFRAID in Wales (the spoken word sounds similar, even if the spelling looks different!).
Another proto-Celtic word is “RIGAN”, meaning “Great Queen”.
So B-RIGAN-TIA refers to “Great Queen” and Her followers were known as “BRIGANTES”. The Brigantes was the largest single tribe in ancient Brittania. There was also a smaller clan branch in south-east Ireland. Taking in to account regional dialects, you can still find ancient place names that contain some form of “Brigantes”, right across Europe.
Even the Roman Empire acknowledged this prominent Celtic Goddess. They equated Brigantia with their own Goddess Minerva, who was the Roman version of the Greek Goddess Athene. All three female deities shared similar attributes. They were patronesses of arts and crafts, knowledge, and protectors of their followers.
From a modern Pagan perspective, Brighid / Brigantia / Brigindo is a Goddess with power over the four elements.
Her three Arrows of Inspiration work with AIR.
As a WATER Goddess, Brighid blesses all clean sources of water, particularly wells.
With EARTH, Brighid protects the land, crops, livestock and the tribe. She is the provider of food and keeps everyone and everything healthy (like the Tarot Empress).
Above all, Brighid is known as a FIRE Goddess! Acting as a female (and Celtic) version of the Greek God Prometheus, Brighid gifted her followers with the knowledge of how to make FIRE: Fire in the home hearth for cooking and heating; Fire in the forge, to make both ploughs and swords.
Brighid, as Metal Worker, may date back as far as the Bronze Age.
As “Inspirer of Poets”, which was the ancient Druid way of preserving information, Brighid is also Queen of Communications for the New Digital Age of Aquarius. Brighid’s main festival, Imbolg, takes place during the time of Aquarius, around the first of February. Many regard Her as the chief deity for the Age of Aquarius. If so, then our Great Queen, is coming back into her power!
May we always under Brighid’s Blessings Be!
author: Veronica Smith 1st February 2024
REFERENCES:
VOICES FROM THE GROVE: THE CALL OF BRIGHID, BRIGHT INSPIRATION, Volume Two of the Ogham Grove Year Wheel Journal and Diary, dedicated to Brighid of the Flame and the Rowan Tree, Edited by Yuri Leitch. Available through Amazon
The beautiful cover for this post is also by Yuri Leitch and depicts Goddess Brighid with her shield of three swans and the Roman statue of Minerva / Brigantia. Beside her are the mother-and-baby bears (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor). Even the swans represent the star system Cygnus, which is visible in the night sky around Imbolg. Lots of star-lore imagery there!
Check out Yuri’s Facebook group, THE OGHAM GROVE
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